According to the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation’s (ATO) headquarters, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed, five others were wounded and one soldier went missing during a battle near Luhansk.

Photo: Getty Images / AFP / Sergey Gapon

Two soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed, while five others were wounded and one soldier went missing in a battle near Luhansk, the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation’s (ATO) headquarters reported.

According to the Ukrainian side, in the Monday’s afternoon an unknown sabotage-reconnaissance group attacked positions of one of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ units near the village of Luhansk.

“As a result of the battle, two soldiers were killed, five others were injured and one soldier went missing. As for the enemy losses in the battle, the information is being updated,” the ATO’s statement read.

At the same time, in the evening on September 12, the Ukrainian Armed Forces started to shell Zaitsevo with tanks, the DONI news agency reported, citing acting head of the City Hall of Gorlovka, Ivan Prikhodko. According to the news agency, a few shells landed on the central part of Zaitsevo.

“At about 18:40, the Ukrainian side opened fire at the locality of Zaitsevo with tanks. Two shells landed in the downtown of the locality,” DONI quoted the words of Prikhodko.

Prikhodko added that the locality was also fired with small arms and grenade launchers. Information on casualties is being updated.

Earlier on Monday, Deputy Commander of the Operative Command of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, announced that over the past day, the ceasefire was violated 108 times by Ukrainian military.

He also noted the work of Ukrainian special operations forces’ diversionary groups on the territory of the republic. On Sunday, a Ukrainian sabotage-reconnaissance group organized an explosion, as a result of which one civilian was injured. On Monday, the DPR’s Forces prevented another terrorist attack. According to Basurin, an explosive device was put on the Khartsyzsk military commissariat building elevation. The explosion should take place in the morning, when local residents would arrive at the scene.

Basurin also reported about discovering a new batch of disguised Ukrainian military hardware, arrived to the contact line. The Deputy Commander pointed out that “all the data on violating the Minsk agreements by the Ukrainian side and the location of the AFU [the Armed Forces of Ukraine] military equipment, prohibited by the Minsk agreements, were handed over by the OSCE [the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] and JCCC [the Joint Center for Control and Coordination] representatives.”

Is this true or one of Kiev’s many hyperventilations? This just does not seem like Putin’s style and the DPR/LPR is certainly capable of carrying out such an attack on their own. The ONLY thing that makes me think twice would be if Putin wanted to send a message that the assault on Crimea would not go unpunished.

It would only make sense if ‘Crimea’ was carved into one of the victim’s chest, a morbid thought, but the point is that a retribution attack only works if it is clearly marked as such, otherwise it is a pointless shedding of blood.